Imran Khan injured in election rally fall

Imran Khan speaking on state television in a hospital after the accident

AFP: Dunya News

Would-be Pakistani prime minister and former cricket star Imran Khan has been rushed to hospital with head injuries after falling five metres off a platform during a rally ahead of Saturday's historic election.

Television footage showed Mr Khan, leader of the Pakistan Movement for Justice party (PTI), bleeding from the head as he was carried by aides through the crowd at the event in the country's second largest city, Lahore.

The incident happened as he was being lifted onto the stage by a crane but lost his balance and fell head first several metres to the ground. At least three other men went down with him.

He was taken to hospital but his injuries are not considered serious.

"Imran Khan has one head injury and two spinal cord fractures," Dr Faisal Sultan, chief executive officer of Shaukat Khanum Hospital, told reporters in a late night statement.

"The other three men who fell with Imran Khan are very much OK. They were not admitted," Mr Khan's spokesman Zubair Niazi said.

His fall came at the end of a day that saw 17 people killed and dozens more wounded in bomb attacks in north-west Pakistan, taking the death toll in the bloody campaign for Saturday's general election past 100.

In a televised statement from his hospital bed Mr Khan urged people to vote for his party.

"I did whatever I could for this country. Now remember 11th May, come out and vote for PTI without considering its candidates, just vote for PTI and its ideology only to end politics of personalities and communities," he said.

People at the rally venue, where thousands had gathered, expressed sadness.

"Passion and love for Imran Khan brought all these people here. We are still here, all we can do is pray now," PTI supporter Sobia Khan said.

Saturday's poll will mark a democratic milestone in a country ruled for half its history by the military as the first time a civilian government has served a full term and handed over to another through the ballot box.

Mr Khan, who won only one seat in 2002 and boycotted polls in 2008, has led an electric campaign, galvanising the middle class and young people in what he has called a "tsunami" of support that will propel him into office.